5 MORE things you probably didn’t know you could freeze

Obviously, freezing is a principal tenet of the $35-a-week plan—so much so, in fact, that we invested in an auxiliary chest freezer. (If you’re in the market for one, I highly recommend staying away from Craigslist—most older chest freezers are notorious energy hogs, which is probably the reason they’re on CL to begin with. Look for a newer Energy Star model; we found ours for only $220 at Costco and haven’t noticed any increase in our power bill.)

Freezing to extend the life of your food is perhaps the easiest, quickest, and most accessible way to save a few bucks, so with that in mind, here’s an addendum to the original 5 things you probably didn’t know you could freeze post.

Splurge: coffee crème brûlée: 95 cents each

You may have noticed there are only three desserts on this entire site, and two of them are crème brûlées. There’s no particular reason for this other than the fact I don’t really like making dessert, and not only can crème brûlée be made in advance, it offers the most bang for the dessert-making buck. Smooth, cold, creamy custard topped with a shatteringly crisp crust: What’s not to like? I made these coffee ones for a dinner we were having with my father-in-law, to complement the beef-heavy main dish. If you’re sensitive to sugar, you might want to reduce the amount to 1/3 cup or so. Otherwise, everything about this—from the amount of coffee flavor to the custard texture—is spot-on.

Money Saver: bulk coffee: 6 cents/cup

Life is livable without a great many things, but coffee is not one of them. Despite the fact we live in Portland, we’re pretty flexible on coffee quality. One issue we have trouble with, though, is buying pre-ground coffee that’s been properly ground in a burr grinder versus whole beans that are fresher but un-properly ground in our cheap Mr. Coffee blade grinder.